The project’s intentions were on the one hand to include all data of the printed edition of the Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik in a database, and on the other hand to digitize some important articles of the period 1868–1942 completely.

The Jahrbuch was the world's oldest reviewing journal in mathematics. It was founded in 1868 by the Berlin mathematicians Carl Ohrtmann and Felix Müller with the aim of providing a complete survey of European publications in mathematics. The Jahrbuch was continuosly published until 1945.

In the years 1998 to 2003 all bibliographic data and reviews contained in the printed Jahrbuch were typed and integrated in a database. In order to meet the requirements of a modern literature database, classifications, keywords and translations of the titles were added. Mathematicians woldwide volunteered to perform this work, and they added commentaries or references if they found them necessary or helpful. This editorial work is not yet complete, and will be constantly updated in the current version of the database.

In the meantime the Digital Library at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen contains about 3200 issues of mathematical journals, for instance the »Mathematischen Annalen«, the »Mathematische Zeitschrift« and »Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici«, and additionally a selection of books, dissertations and scientific inheritances. Now the Jahrbuch database contains many links to completely digitized articles or books not only in Göttingen, but also to other digital libraries, e.g. the Cornell Historic Math Book Collection, University of Michigan Historical Math Collection, Project GALLLICA of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and Project NUMDAM in Grenoble.

In 2004, the time frame has extended even further by all articles of the »Journal über die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik« (founded in 1825).